October Retrospective

Missed some of the discussion on the zine? We pick out the best articles and stories on the zine from October.

Image: no time CC-BY-NC Flickr: Tim Johnson

October meant more than the transition to winter at the zine. It was also a month of celebrations. Ruth Coustick puts a light on Banned Books Week, which “celebrates the freedom to read”. She explores the different censorship on books and censorship of internet practiced in the UK.

The other event celebrated in October was Adace Lovelace Day. Milena Popova explains its origins and meaning celebrated on October 16th. She explores the reason why Adace Lovelace is such a figure for women in the digital world and asks you who are your digital rights heroines.

Staying on the subject of past personalities that influence today’s digital world, The Doors of Probability, an article by Wendy Grossman, explains what a 1700s mathematician such as Thomas Bayes has to do with modern search engines and how Mike Lynch was influenced by him.

In Social Media Prosecutions: grossly offensive to some, Matt Bradley goes back on Azhar Ahmed's case and the events that followed his post on Facebook. He compares it to other similar cases and questions whether the right to free speech is being violated.

On the same note, in Washing Dirty Linen at Home, Paola Ycaza also takes us back to notions and values of freedom of speech. She explains why there is a double standard in terms of the Ecuadorian government granting Julian Assange asylum. She also gives a series of examples showing the Ecuador government's treatment towards its own media and the paradox in trying to present itself as a freedom of speech defender to the international community.

Moving on to copyrights issues, Richard O’Dwyer’s mother, Julia O’Dwyer, gives us some background as to why the US are demanding the extradition of her son. She explains why these reasons do not apply to Richard’s case, but also gives a clear picture of why England, represented by Theresa May in this case, might have difficulties prohibiting the extradition.

Copyrights and licences laws are tackled next by Ruth Coustick in Block-bursting my eardrums. Fed up with the repetitive horror-like music in her local Blockbuster, she takes it upon herself to ask questions that surely others have asked themselves and discovers why Blockbuster’s music choice is limited.

 

Editor’s pick you might have missed:

Finding the Gorilla, Wendy Grossman explains the idea developed at the Singular Summit that “a really smart machine can think like an animal”.

Lie to me, Wendy Grossman relates to us the infamous suggestion made by Adam Smith to lie online for identity protection.

Building a digital library, Rachel Coldicutt, Director at Caper, describes her rather successful attempt to scan their entire book collection.

Coming up in the next month:

Back to hacktivism: religious enthusiasts hacked the French Euromillions site.

We’ll explore whether The Pan-African Intellectual Property Organisation (PAIPO) is a form of digital neo-colonialism.

Stephanie de Vanssay gives zine an exclusive interview on integrating the net and social media to the French education system.